Chapter 13: Active Directory
What a way to end! Some have said that they fear Active Directory (AD) more than public speaking. AD is a vast sea of entwined objects and interrelationships, but with a general understanding of its framework and a troubleshooting game plan in place, you will see that approaching, troubleshooting, and resolving problems with the Active Directory is not much different from approaching any other network service.
Perhaps the key differentiator between AD and the other services mentioned in this book is that it is much newer than they are. This means that there are not many out there that can honestly state that they have years of troubleshooting experience on AD issues. If Cliffs Notes were ever needed for AD troubleshooting, you will find them here.
This chapter outlines the abundance of Microsoft tools available for locating and correcting AD faults and also references the AD tools contained on this book's CD. All aspects of Active Directory fault isolation are covered in this meaty chapter, including
Group policies
Domains
Trusts
Replication
The Active Directory schema
Flexible Single-Master Operations (FSMO) roles
Security
With the pressure still on AD to prove itself as a reliable directory service, its credibility depends on you. The quicker that you can resolve AD problems as they occur, the sooner your organization will come to accept your Active Directory integrated network infrastructure. This chapter leaves no stone unturned in its pursuit of AD fault detection and correction.